Auxiliary air-inlet device for internal-combustion engines



1,650,388 R. A; REID AUXILIARY AIR INLET nnv cs FOR INTERNAL COMBUSTION smmuss Filed June 4, 1925 InvenTor; Robefl A. Reid Patented Nov. 22, 1927.

UNITED STATES nsane PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT A; Burner ivrnnronn, MASSACHUSETTS.

AUXILIARY AIR-INLET DEVICE r03 rN En AL-coMB s'TIoiTENGINES;

Application filed :June 4, 1923. Serial No. 643,239.

This invention relates to a heater and vaporizer for the fuel used in an internal combustion engine and the object thereof is to provide such a device'whic'h will thoroughly heat and entirely vaporize the fuel.

A further object of the present invention is 'to provide such a heater and vaporizer which is adjustable to give different desired degrees of heat.

A further object of the invention is to provide such a heater which is cheap to manufacture and easy to apply to the engine.

A further object of the invention is to provide such a heater which will admit heated fresh air to the intake manifold of the internal combustion engine but which ifvilll prevent water from entering the manio d.

Other objects and features of the invention will more fully appear from the following description and the accompanying draw- .ings and will be particularly pointed out in the claim. e I

The drawings illustrate a preferred form 5 of construction adapted for use in a heater and vaporizer for internal combustion engines and embody the broad principles of the invention. p

In the drawings: I Fig. 1 is an elevation of the invention applied to an internal combustion engine;

Fig. 2 is an end view of the invention showing the exhaust pipeof the engine in section;

Fig. 3 is an vaporizer showing one be adjusted.

The device which forms. the subject matter of the present invention is intended to be applied to the usual type of internal combustion engine designated generally at 1 and which has an exhaust manifold 2, an intake manifold 3, branching at 4 to connect with the engine cylinders, and a carburetor 5 supplied with liquid fuel through, a pipe 6.

As illustrated herein the device constituting the invention consistsof a tube 7 having at one end a heat conducting coil 8 fas tened against the exhaust manifold and having the other end 9 extending into the intake manifold whereby the suction of the engine will draw air through the coil where vit is heated and into the intake manifold where it heats and vaporizes the fuel. The tube is preferably a flexible metallic tube adapted to be bent into coils, with one end elevation of the heater and way in which it may ofthe tube bent, as shown in the drawings, into a heat conduction coil and the other end extending into the intake manifold. The convolutions of the heat conducting coil are so arranged as to produce a .flat coil fittingagainst and curved where necessary to conform to the contour of the exhaust manifold.- The coil may be fastened against the' exhaust manifold in any de sired position but in order to prevent any water, which may fall on the tube while the. car is being washed or is standing in the rain, from entering the tube the coil is preferably fastened against the exhaust manifold with the open end of the tube within the heating coil projecting downwardly as shown in the drawings. Although the end of the pipe which enters the intake manifold may stop as soon as it goes through the wall of said manifold, it is desirable that the end extend inside of the intake manifold to the point where the. manifold branches-to connect with the engine cylinders. With this construction the tube forms a part within the manifold whichis always highly heated and immediately vaporizesany fuel which comes from the carbureter as liquid spray. Y I

Inorder' to easily apply'the invention to the enginea spacing member 10 is provided for insertion between the carbureter and the intakez'manifold and the end 9 ofthe tube extends through said spacing member into i the intake manifold; The spacing member may be held in place in any desired manner butit preferably has flanges 11 provided with holes 12 which register with corre-- sponding flanges and holeson the adjacent portions of the carbureter and intake manifold, and bolts extend through the holes in the flanges of the carbureter, spacing mem ber, and intake manifold to retain the parts in the position shown in Fig. 1. Gaskets 13 may be inserted on'either side of the spacing member to provide atight joint. By the use of the spacing member the entire device may be assembled in the shop where it is made and applied to the engine on which it is to be used without tapping the intake manifold or any other part of the engine and the only fittings which are necessary in applying the device are bolts which are long enough to extend through all of the flanges above mentioned and-a means to fasten theheating coil against the exhaust manifold. Such means is preferably a band 14 which extends around the exhaust manifold and the heating coil and has its ends adjustably clamped together by means of a screw 15 passing through ears which are formed onthe ends of the band.

The device is adjustable to give .different degrees of heat. Whenvthe device-is made up as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings it is giving a medium amount of heat. In order to give less heat the coil-may be reinoved from the position shown infulllines iii-Fig. 1 against that part .ofrthev exhaust unanifold which gets the heat from two cyl- "inders a'nd.fastened 1n the position shown in dotted lines'in Fig. 1 where it is clamped against that parti ofi the exhaust .manifold which only receives the heat from one cylin- 'der. If the device still heats the fuel to too h-igh' a degree one or moreturns may be.

taken off of the" 'heating'coil and formed into 7 a cooling coil 16 intermediate between -tl16l16d't111 coil and thenoint where the tube i i b. m

enters'theintake.manrrold. if a HIELXHDHHI a from all ofthecylindersotthe engine. The V heating effect: is desiredjthe coil may be clamped on "that partiof. the exhaust manifield which 1s heated by the exhaust gases flatshape'of the coil enables it readily to be slid along the face ofthe manifold and secured at any de'siredipoint.

Thedevice may be applied to'anyxengine.

-Tl1e heating coil may.be ifastened against any hot part of the engine and the tube may be lengthened to 'accommodate such changes iii-position. The-device 1s particularly:use-

ful because the amount of air. whichis sucked inthro ugh' the coil andthe amount of heat which is givenolf by vthe end vofwthe tube which is within the intake manifold is determined by the working conditions of? the engine. The faster. the. engine goes, the

I greater is the suction withinv theiintake. manifold and consequently the greater' is: the amountof fuel drawn through the intake manifold. The heater and vaporizer meets this condition because the amount of air passing through the coil is determined by the suction on the intake manifold and the temperature of the heating coil is determined by the temperature of the exhaust manifold which in turn-isdetermined by the number of explosions and the speed of the engine. Thus the device is self-regulating. It has been found that the use of the invention lessens the deposit of carbon in the cylinders 01- the engine and since it is assured that the fuel drawn into the cylinder is in the'gaseous vstate it prevents the possibility that liquid gasoline will leak from the interior of the cylinder down past the piston rings into the crank case and thin the lubricating oil.

I Although a particular and preferred form licationsmay be madeand the invention is to be construed-as broadly as the limitations inthe' claim, taken in conjunction with. the prior art, may allow.

j Having thus described the invention what isclaimed as new anddesired to be secured by Letters Patent is: a

An auxiliary air inlet device for internal combustion engines comprising aiength of pipe, for conveying air and having one :end formed 'into-a flattcoil of a shape to rest against the outside face of the exhaust pipe of an internal combustion engine, a strap to encircle the exhaustpipe and coil and secure the latter in place, said pipe extending from the'coildownwardly andrthen upwardly, and a member adapted to be inserted between the carburetor and the intake pipe and. having an opening .therethrough, and through one wall. of which the end of said pipe extends,

1 ROBERT A. Run),

of the invention hasbeen described modi 

